[katsung47]

US said Saddam was a dictator and activated a war on Iraq. As a result, Islamic extremists control Iraq and Iraq Christian suffered severe persecution. They escaped to Syria. Now US says Assad is a dictator and ..... Poor Christians, where will they go this time?
----------------------

The price of regime change
By David Warren, Ottawa Citizen

There are millions of Christians in Syria, who probably have the Russians and Chinese to thank that they may live there a little longer. The Security Council vetoes, a fortnight ago, on a resolution calling upon Syria's dictator to step down, and supporting an Arab-sponsored plan to "end the violence," put paid to any immediate prospect of western intervention.

The outrage expressed by Hillary Clinton, William Hague, and other western foreign ministers, probably concealed a little relief, for the vetoes provided the excuse they needed to avoid the issue, while continuing to posture about "humanitarianism" and "democracy."
…….


Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/pr...293/story.html

The top part is my comment. Since corporationpaintball locked my post in the name of 'no comment" even there was comment so I have to emphysize it. It's sad this country now becomes something like this.

[katsung47]

Iraq: Worse for Christians Now Than under Saddam Hussein
• Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
• Tuesday, July 01, 2008

July 2, 2008

BAGHDAD (ANS) -- The Reverend Canon Andrew White, affectionately known as The Vicar of Baghdad, says the situation for Christians in Iraq is "clearly worse" than under the Saddam Hussein regime, toppled by US and Coalition forces in 2003.

In a segment of the CBS news program 60 Minutes, originally broadcast on Dec. 2, 2007, updated June 26 and aired on June 29, 2008, correspondent Scott Pelley asked Canon White: "You were here during Saddam’s reign. And now after. Which was better? Which was worse?"

"The situation now is clearly worse” than under Saddam, White replied.

"There’s no comparison between Iraq now and then," he told Pelley. "Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians. Probably ever in history. They’ve never known it like now."

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/religi...-11578523.html

US said it invades Iraq for WMD. After they failed to find any WMD, they say it's for democracy. As a result, Iraqi Christian are persecuted after Bush's liberation.

[eforce]

Religion is the achilles heel of humanity. This type of crap has been going on for centuries. This is not news (or surprising) by any means.

[Volucris]

Simple: they'll go into Turkey like they have been since this **** started and before that.

[katsung47]

There were churches in Afghan before US invasion. None is left 10 years after US occupied Afghan. Be noticed that this news indirectly(may be the news agency is afraid of being called "unpatriot"?) related this to US foreign policy.
Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan, Says State Department

By Edwin Mora
October 10, 2011
Subscribe to Edwin Mora's posts


(CNSNews.com) -- There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan's new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department's latest International Religious Freedom Report.

[kjjm4]

What's your point? Are you arguing that the United States has a sacred duty to defend Christianity or something?

If Christians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria want religious freedom, they can fight for it themselves. We need to stay the **** out of it, like we should have been doing all along.

[licence_to_kill]

he's a conspiracy troll that just copies and pastes ****

ignore him

[Blake360]

Originally Posted by licence_to_kill

he's a conspiracy troll that just copies and pastes ****

ignore him

How is this a conspiracy? I bet you think the holocaust was also a conspiracy.

[Volucris]

STP - Trolls Calling Out Trolls

[Eric the Fish]

In a Democracy the people can vote for the absolutely worst party to rule them. Unfortunately with the "Arab Spring" the extreme Islamist parties are the most organized and best funded (Thank you Saudi Arabia and Iran) so they are taking control of former dictatorships and installing Theocracies in everything but name. Extreme Islam tolerates no other religion on an equal footing so of course Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus get the short stick in these countries. Look up the laws regarding building churches in Islamic dominated countries and everything but Mosques are verboten.

[TheSilentAssassin]

Originally Posted by Eric the Fish

Unfortunately with the "Arab Spring" the extreme Islamist parties are the most organized and best funded (Thank you Saudi Arabia and Iran) so they are taking control of former dictatorships and installing Theocracies in everything but name.

To be clear, the dictators were installed and supported by the stereotypical Christian USA. These US supported dictators have been killing their people and letting the American corporations economically exploit them into extreme poverty for the past 30 years. I wonder why Christians get the short end of the stick...

[katsung47]

Originally Posted by kjjm4

What's your point? Are you arguing that the United States has a sacred duty to defend Christianity or something?

If Christians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria want religious freedom, they can fight for it themselves. We need to stay the **** out of it, like we should have been doing all along.

So what's the point of your war in Mid-east? Liberate whom? Extreme Islamists? To persecute Christians?

What I saw is the war of Iraq created a most corruptive country in Mid-east.

A failed war - Iraq the world’s fourth-most-corrupt country and by far the worst in the Middle East. That's what an US asset politician in Iraq says.

Quote, "How the U.S. and the world can help Iraq
By Ayad Allawi, Published: August 31



“More than eight years after Saddam Hussein’s regime was overthrown, basic services are in a woeful state: Most of the country has only a few hours of electricity a day. Blackouts were increasingly common this summer.

“Oil exports, still Iraq’s only source of income, are barely more than they were when Hussein was toppled. The government has squandered the boon of high oil prices and failed to create real and sustainable job growth. Iraq’s economy has become an ever more dysfunctional mix of cronyism and mismanagement, with high unemployment and endemic corruption.
“Transparency International ranks Iraq the world’s fourth-most-corrupt country and by far the worst in the Middle East. The promise of improved security has been empty, with sectarianism on the rise.”

False Promises

Allawi also cites the false promises of democracy:

“Despite failing to win the most seats in last year’s elections, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki clung to power through a combination of Iranian support and U.S. compliance. He now shows an alarming disregard for democratic principles and the rule of law.

“Vital independent institutions such as the election commission, the transparency commission and Iraq’s central bank have been ordered to report directly to the office of the prime minister. Meanwhile, Maliki refuses to appoint consensus candidates as defense and interior ministers, as per last year’s power-sharing agreement.

“The government is using blatant dictatorial tactics and intimidation to quell opposition, ignoring the most basic human rights. Human Rights Watch reported in February on secret torture prisons under Maliki’s authority.

“In June, it exposed the government’s use of hired thugs to beat, stab and even sexually assault peaceful demonstrators in Baghdad who were complaining about corruption and poor services. These horrors are reminiscent of autocratic responses to demonstrations by failing regimes elsewhere in the region, and a far cry from the freedom and democracy promised in the new Iraq.

“Is this really what the United States sacrificed more than 4,000 young men and women, and hundreds of billions of dollars, to build? The trend of failure is becoming irreversible.”
So what is going on here? How can the U.S. media hail Petraeus’s “successful surge” and write about “victory at last” in Iraq when it appears that the Bush-Cheney-neocon intervention has created what amounts to a failed state in Iraq?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...xsJ_story.html

[katsung47]

Syrian Christians worry about life after Bashar Assad

They fear civil war and revenge attacks if President Bashar Assad falls, an anxiety fed by the sectarian violence seen in Egypt and Iraq.

Ignatius IV, patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, described Syria as an oasis of religious tolerance where Christians can worship freely, build sanctuaries and run schools, activities that are restricted by varying degrees in a number of Middle Eastern countries.

Christian clerics are frequently shown on television taking part in joint prayer services with their Muslim counterparts. The defense minister is a Christian, as are other senior members of the government and security forces.

"Wherever you go, you find Christians and Muslims," said the patriarch, who has a photograph of himself with Assad displayed on his office wall. "There is no distinction."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...,4403703.story

[katsung47]

Patriarch al-Rahi: Syria is Closest to Democracy in Arab World, Needs the Reforms Announced by President al-Assad

Mar 04, 2012

He regretted the violence and destruction taking place in Syria, saying that there are destructive plans in world politics and that the people don't want the extremists who are receiving financial, military and political support from certain countries.

"How can the Arab Spring be a spring when people are killed every day? They talk about Iraq and democracy while a million Christians out of one and a half million were forced to leave Iraq… where is democracy in Iraq?" he asked, saying that this so-called spring is closer to a winter of war, destruction and killing.

"What good is democracy if it wants to kill people and throw away stability?" Patriarch al-Rahi wondered.

http://www.sana.sy/eng/22/2012/03/04/404155.htm

[katsung47]

Most Syrians back President Assad, but you'd never know from western media

Assad's popularity, Arab League observers, US military involvement: all distorted in the west's propaganda war
Jonathan Steele guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 January 2012

The key finding was that while most Arabs outside Syria feel the president should resign, attitudes in the country are different. Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay, motivated by fear of civil war – a spectre that is not theoretical as it is for those who live outside Syria's borders.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ern-propaganda

[Spock]

Originally Posted by katsung47

where will they go this time?

To a mosque?

[katsung47]

Christians 'emptied from Middle East'

Rowan Callick

October 06, 2012

THE mother superior of a 1500-year-old monastery in Syria warned yesterday during a visit to Australia that the uprising against Bashar al-Assad has been hijacked by foreign Islamist mercenaries, with strong support from Western countries.

Mother Agnes-Mariam de la Croix was forced to flee to neighbouring Lebanon in June when she was warned of a plot to abduct her, after she revealed that about 80,000 Christians had been "cleared" by rebel forces from their homes in Homs province.

She described on the website of the Greek-Melkite Catholic monastery of St James, the church she rebuilt 18 years ago after discovering it in ruins, how Islamist rebels had gathered Christian and Alawi hostages in a building in Khalidiya in Homs. Then they blew it up with dynamite and attributed the act to the regular army.

http://m.theaustralian.com.au/news/w...-1226489418086

[Peppermint]

Troubling to see this news. The Syrian conflict has now spread to Lebanon. I'm guessing the Christian community there is coming under pressure.

"The Syrian War Takes Root in Lebanon"

http://blogs.the-american-interest.c...ot-in-lebanon/

From the article ~

...These divisions are part of the same complex, rooted in colonial times, when France carved an independent Lebanon out of Ottoman Syria as a home for pro-French Maronite Christians. In recent times, the Assad clan’s dominance in Syria has reinforced the power of the Shiite Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon and Beirut.
Modern Lebanon is “a fragile contraption,” Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write in an article for the NY Review of Books. It “is pulled in competing directions: some [Lebanese] would look to a new Sunni-dominated Syria with envy, perhaps a yearning to join. Others would look to it with fright and despair.”
Lebanon will not escape the fight against Assad. The Syria war is already changing political arrangements in Lebanon, with protestors attacking Prime Minister Mikati (a Sunni) for being a Hezbollah lackey. At the same time, Hezbollah has never been forced to balance its priorities so precariously: between ruling Lebanon, supporting Butcher Assad, and continuing the policies that have made it popular among Lebanon’s Shiites and lower classes, Hezbollah is stretched.
As in Syria, this political turmoil won’t be peaceful; the street, not the ballot box, is the battleground, and the Kalashnikov the weapon of choice.

[katsung47]

The main religion of the Western is Christian. It's strange that they support Islamic extremists to overturn a secular government. So the money (oil) can blind thier eyes.

Western-Backed Rebels Move Against Syria’s Christian Minority

Churches in Homs Under Constant Attack

by Jason Ditz, October 14, 2012

Militant factions in rebel-held cities like Homs see Christian communities as easy targets for extortion, and the more Islamist blocs regularly target their churches, damaging many and destroying others.

Christians and other minorities have tried to form militias to protect their neighborhoods, but with the rebels awash in Western money and arms, they are simply out-manned and outgunned. As the fight continues to escalate, the groups are facing a tougher and tougher choice about whether to try to stay or to flee abroad.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/10/14/w...tian-minority/

[katsung47]

The plight of Syria's Christians: 'We left Homs because they were trying to kill us'


In the civil war, they have tried to stay neutral. But despite this, many are now facing persecution and death


Kim Sengupta


Al-Qaa, Lebanon Friday 02 November 2012

The car may have been the reason why the 23-year-old student was ambushed and taken hostage, along with a female friend, as they were travelling to a shopping complex. The revolutionary fighters with Kalashnikovs who led them away subjected Mr Bedrosian – blindfolded and tied up – to savage beatings and threats of execution before the pair was finally freed in exchange for a ransom.

Or there may have been a different reason for the attack: they were targeted by the Sunni Muslim rebels because they were Christians. Mr Bedrosian did not wait long to find out, leaving – along with his brother – for Lebanon. Others from the Syrian Armenian community followed, abandoning their homes.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...s-8274710.html

[katsung47]

Turkish people oppose Erdogan Syria policy: Analyst

Submitted by Tom Sullivan Oct/13/2012


A political analyst says the majority of Turkish people are against NATO intervention in the Syria-Turkey conflict and their government’s policies towards the Arab country, Press TV reports.

http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/new...policy-analyst